Hearing held involving school board member

Published 10:47 pm Monday, August 13, 2012

No ruling has come down yet in the misdemeanor assault case of Selma City School Board member Frank Chestnut Jr. and Selma resident Carolyn Robinson.

In a municipal court hearing Monday, prosecuting attorney Ed Green called four witnesses to the stand who all told similar stories.

Each of those four witnesses confirmed they saw Chestnut approach Robinson angrily following a school board member and poke his index finger in Robinson’s forehead while in a loud tone saying, “I thought you had something to say to me. What do you want to say to me?”

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But Chestnut’s attorney, Vonda Bonham, called three witnesses to the stand who had testimonies telling very different stories.

These three witnesses testified that when they looked at Chestnut and Robinson and a group of people surrounding the two, Chestnut was backing up away from Robinson with his hands in the air, and calmly stating he wanted to talk about issues with Robinson.

Uniontown municipal court judge Franklin Wayne Cordery presided over the case as there are a number of conflicts of interest involving Selma’s municipal judges.

Cordery said a decision would be announced sometime Tuesday.